STILWELL FOOTBALL'S THANKSGIVING DAY TRADITION
By Gregg Stilwell
Many of you will be watching football on television this Thanksgiving, but how many of you remember when Thanksgiving Day football was a Stilwell tradition. The Indians, or Pirates, as Stilwell teams were known through1933, played regular season games on turkey day on a yearly basis from 1926-46. During that span the years 1944-45 were the only ones in which the local eleven did not partake in holiday gridiron competition. The 1926 contest was the inaugural Thanksgiving clash, featuring Stilwell and Westville in the infancy of the rivalry that would come to be known as " The Battle for Baron Fork". The game was the third ever meeting between the two county schools, and would mark the first time Stilwell came away without a victory in the series, as the Yellowjackets and Jim Gordon's SHS Pirates fought to a 0-0 tie at Westville. 1927 saw Stilwell host its first Thanksgiving game. Floyd Thompkins' troops outlasted Bob Mastin's Heavener Wolves 6-0, with QB James Bradley scoring the winning tally in the fourth quarter. E.G. McLemore coached Stilwell to victories in 1928 and 1929. The '28 contest pitted SHS against the highly regarded Eufaula Ironheads, coached by Almon White, McLemore's Squad came home with a 19-7 upset victory. Sequoyah was the guest the next year, with SHS winning 13-6.

For the next four years,1930-34, Stilwell and Stigler met on Thanksgiving Day, with the schools alternating the home field advantage, beginning at Stilwell in 1930. Stigler, as was usually the case during the formative years of Stilwell football, dominated the series. The Panthers won close contests against G.R. Hurd's Pirates in 1930 (7-0), '31 (12-6) and '32 (7-6). Jerry Lewis' 1933 team managed a 12-12 tie at Stigler, but fell the next two years, 12-7 in the Thanksgiving debut of the newly christened "Indians" in 1934, and 72-0 in 1935. The Sallisaw Black Diamonds were the opponents from 1936-40. Stilwell lost the first two meetings. Larry Lautenbach's Indians lost 6-0 at Sallisaw in 1936, and Bill Bynum's 1937 edition came up on the short end of a 6-2 decision. In 1938, H.L. "Goob" Arnold returned home to coach his alma mater and guided his charges to the schools first Thanksgiving Day victory in eight years,7-6 over Diamonds. G.N. Mounger took hold of the Indians coaching reins in 1942 and '43,and gave the Indian fans something to be thankful for, with wins over Sallisaw in both years, 6-0 in '42 and 26-13 in 1943. The 1944 and '45 seasons were the beginning of the end of Thanksgiving Day football. The 1944 Sallisaw contest, a 6-0 Indian win, was played on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, while the 1945 season ended a week earlier.

Head Coach Pete Forrest of Stilwell and Doc Beavers of Haskell agreed to attempt to renew the tradition in 1946. Many schools, Stilwell included, had by this time installed lights at their stadiums. The decision was made to make the Thanksgiving game a night-time affair, to allow families to spend the better portion of the day together. On the field the move was a success as far as the Indians were concerned, as they rolled over the Haymakers 26-0. The 1946 contest however, would prove to be the last Thanksgiving Day game in Stilwell Indian history.